Overall, the movie started kind of slow. Through the first 15-20 minutes I felt that there wasn't much of an improvement. It was the same type of shoddy writing and forgettable songs that plagued the first movie. The deus ex machina of Sunset Shimmer's book was a bit of a cop-out, but I do feel the movie picked up a little bit more once the story featured Equestria. It was at least nice to have the whole Mane Six together. And I thought the added plot of Twilight wracking her mind trying to match everybody's expectations that she missed everything around her was a good plot point, because in the end it let Sunset Shimmer come to the rescue. In a way you could say the movie's #1 main character was Sunset Shimmer. It was her maturation that formed the backbone of the story, until in the end she was able to take over Twilight's place in the group. Yeah, the conclusion wrapped up fairly neatly and rapidly, but at least it wasn't "in your face" with the friendship lesson.

Now, the Battle of the Bands sequence was where the movie shines the best. It was fun to see all the shout-outs to the show, but what really set it apart was the amazing visuals that goes with the music. And Rainbow Dash's song is awesome, but maybe I'm just a little bit biased.

A few more things. I thought the Dazzlings were kind of lame villains. Adagio Dazzle was detestable. Aria Blaze didn't really have much of a presence. And everybody seemed to like Sonata Dusk, and she is the most appealing of the three, but I felt that they wanted to give her a ditzy personality but went far beyond that.

I think it's funny that Octavia has more lines in Rainbow Rocks than she did in the season. It's nice, because I like Octavia.

The ending with Sunset Shimmer writing the letter and the appearance of the real EQG Twilight does raise the possibility of a spinoff or a third movie. While I'm not opposed to it, I really hope it doesn't cut into the production of the show.